Canada will bear cost of repatriating trash-filled containers from Philippines

Canada has agreed to pay the full cost of bringing 69 garbage-laden shipping containers back across the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver — but it remains unclear just how much that will be.

A spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says the president and his cabinet spoke about the matter Monday evening.

A Global Affairs Canada official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet made public, says Canada has agreed to foot the bill.

However, the department won’t speculate on how much repatriating the trash will cost, saying only that Environment and Climate Change Canada is working to hire a firm to return the containers to Canada.

Last month, Duterte gave Canada until May 15 to get the containers out of the port near Manila where they have been rotting for nearly six years.

The containers arrived in the Philippines labelled as plastics for recycling, but were found to mostly contain trash, triggering a lengthy back-and-forth between the two governments over which of them should deal with the problem.